self-indulgent musings on fashion, food and other sundries

Archive for March 26th, 2008

I tried, I honestly tried to look past appearances. Rewind to about 1 month ago when I began craving the citrus taste of oranges out of nowhere – I remember standing in front of the display trying to establish selection criteria for a fruit that I didn’t have much buying experience with, and becoming increasingly disturbed by the mutant growth(s) at the base of the fruit. EWW. The disgusting lumpy balloon-ish sacs pushing up against the tough, dimpled skin of the orange…ugh, it was becoming too much to handle. (I actually have an issue with bulbous textures in general, undoubtedly related to my aversion to dots i.e., Shel Silverstein drawings).

Over the next few weeks, I tried my best to select the least mutant-like oranges I could find, but I couldn’t help feeling guilty about being so superficial. So when I found myself in front of the orange display yesterday evening, I became fueled by a sudden desire to disprove my theory and went for one that was truly cringe-worthy. I mean, I seriously averted my eyes and tried to focus instead on the seemingly “firm-but-with-a-nice-give” squeeze factor. I tried to convince myself that maybe this would be the best of the bunch – it would be shockingly sweet, with turgid pulp ready to burst open and release its juicy delightfulness. I was so excited for my shallow assumptions to be shattered…

I’m not going to go into the details of how horrifyingly disgusting this orange turned out to be. Let’s just say that those extra “growths” that you see in the picture probably indicate that this orange was way past its ripe stage. I felt tremendously relieved that in this case, judging a book by its cover wasn’t without merit. Turns out I wasn’t an unjustified asshole, after all.

P.S. I can’t get myself to make this post’s picture as large as they are in the others. Click on the the thumbnail, if you dare, for a closer look.